We maintain a Critical Process Control Laboratory which is used to closely monitor the cleanliness of high-reliability and mission-critical printed circuit board assemblies used in harsh environment applications. We continuously monitor the presence of anions, cations and weak organic acids as contamination originating from the supply chain as residues from processes and chemistries used in raw material production and upstream through to the printed circuit board assembly process to ensure that it is thoroughly removed in accordance with both internal and customer requirements prior to installation and operation in accordance with the following test methods:

We monitor the ionic cleanliness of both printed circuit board fabrications and assemblies in accordance with IPC-TM-650 test methods 2.3.25 (Resistivity of Solvent Extract) for aggregate contaminants and 2.3.28 (Ionic Analysis of Circuits Boards, Ion Chromatography Method) for the following individual anion and cation contaminants:

The presence of anion, cation and weak organic acid contamination from residues usually indicates a lack of process control in both the supply chain for raw materials and for process control parameters used in the production of the finished assembly. In most cases, ionic contamination will originate from printed circuit boards or other components and transfer upstream to the manufacturing process which will only contribute to the overall contamination of the finished product. Excessive amounts of contamination coupled with a harsh operating environment can lead to intermittent operation, reduce the mean-time-between-failure (MTBF) or result in complete circuit failure altogether through electrochemical migration effects including corrosion and dendrite (dendritic) growth, making the importance of monitoring the presence of ionic contamination on all levels of the manufacturing process clear.